casionally the aviator had his
chance. There is one story concerning a British pilot who, on returning
from a reconnaissance flight, observed a German Staff car on the road
under him; he descended and bombed and machine--gunned the car until the
German General and his chauffeur abandoned it, took to their heels, and
ran like rabbits. Later still, when Allied air superiority was assured,
there came the phase of machine-gunning bodies of enemy troops from the
air. Disregarding all antiaircraft measures, machines would sweep down
and throw battalions into panic or upset the military traffic along a
road, demoralising a battery or a transport train and causing as much
damage through congestion of traffic as with their actual machine-gun
fire. Aerial photography, too, became a fine art; the ordinary long
focus cameras were used at the outset with automatic plate changers, but
later on photographing aeroplanes had cameras of wide angle lens type
built into the fuselage. These were very simply operated, one lever
registering the exposure and changing the plate. In many cases, aerial
photographs gave information which the human eye had missed, and it is
noteworthy that photographs of ground showed when troops had marched
over it, while the aerial observer was quite unable to detect the marks
left by their passing.

Some small mention must be made of seaplane activities, which, round
the European coasts involved in the War, never ceased. The submarine
campaign found in the spotting seaplane its greatest deterrent, and it
is old news now how even the deeply submerged submarines were easily
picked out for destruction from a height and the news wirelessed from
seaplane to destroyer, while in more than one place the seaplane itself
finished the task by bomb dropping. It was a seaplane that gave Admiral
Beatty the news that the whole German Fleet was out before the Jutland
Battle, news which led to a change of plans that very nearly brought
about the destruction of Germany's naval power. For the most part, the
seaplanes of the War period were heavier than the land machines and, in
the opinion of the land pilots, were slow and clumsy things to fly. This
was inevitable, for their work demanded more solid building and greater
reliability. To put the matter into Hibernian phrase, a forced landing
at sea is a much more serious matter than on the ground. Thus there was
need for greater engine power, bigger wingspread to support the floats,